RE: Mars in 3D

[P3D Tom Martin <tlmartin@xxxxxxxx>]

For those interested in the 2 Viking landers and their photographic=20
abilities, an excellent publication was written in 1978 called "The=20
Martian Landscape" (NASA SP-425). The book goes into detail on how the=20
cameras for the landers were designed and built, and what considerations=20
are needed for interplanetary photo recognizance. It also delves into=20
the development of early digital cameras. The book has many black and=20
white photos of the Martian landscape, a few colorized photos, and 19=20
stereo pairs (a folding viewer is included in the back of the book).=20
Unfortunately, the book is out of print, so public libraries will be=20
your best bet for finding a copy.

In regards to the polarized/anaglyph debate; the landers each had two=20
cameras mounted about 1 meter apart that did very slow scans of their=20
field of view. Since the photos were later reconstructed from digitized=20
data, it was really up to the publisher which viewing format they wished=20
to present to the end users (polarized, anaglyph, shuttered, etc.). With=20
today=92s computer technology, even the home hobbyist could convert this=20
data into some really interesting 3D images.

If we only had the time=85
Tom Martin


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